Email Fail: Is LinkedIn Getting Too Social?

Like all social media networks, LinkedIn continues to try adding new features in hopes of increasing engagement and growing their user base. Case in point: the Klout-inspired endorsements that have been available for a few months on this business-oriented network. But that fact that it is, indeed, business oriented means that LinkedIn needs to be über-careful about avoiding mistakes like the one we’ve noticed this month: sending out emails to those one has linked in with proclaiming that one has a new job, when one in fact does NOT have a new job and has done nothing to one’s file to indicate this. What’s the harm? It depends. Below is an actual email sent to my business partner proclaiming that I just started a new job. Imagine his surprise, especially since it wasn’t true. No harm done here, as we both knew it was obviously an error. But I have also received emails stating that my staff members have gotten new jobs. If I didn’t actually work in the social media field and wasn’t fully aware of the inaccuracies plaguing recent LinkedIn email updates, could that possible raise red flags about an employee in terms of their company loyalty? You bet.

While there are many advantages to connecting via LinkedIn, there are perils as well. Let this serve as a reminder that everything you post on social media has potential to come back and haunt you – and this goes double in the business world with LinkedIn. So be careful what you post!